Thank goodness not every night is Opening Night.
With the Windsor Express coming off a pair of road losses to kick off their 2022-2023 National Basketball League of Canada season, Logan Stutz was expecting a slightly different look than the Windsor team that Sudbury bested just two weeks ago (129-116) in northern Ontario.
The Express did not disappoint, returning the favour in their home opener, handing the Five their first setback of the year, 122-101 Friday night in southwestern Ontario.
“You’ve got to give a ton of credit to Windsor,” said head coach Stutz, reached on the bus as the team began their long ride home. “They came out and outworked us; they had more energy than us.”
The visitors held their own early, leading 17-16 in a low scoring opening twelve minutes of play, but were behind 51-47 at the half. A third quarter outburst led by newcomer and Wayne State product Latin Davis (5/6 from the field – 12 points in the quarter), with plenty of support from Ja’Myrin Jackson, Nick Garth, Billy White and Tanner Stuckman allowed the Express to take control, increasing their lead to 17 points.
“The ball wasn’t falling for us and they gained energy when they made shots which fueled them even more to outwork us,” said Stutz, assessing a less than ideal start to the second half. Joining Davis (21), Garth (19), White (18) and Stuckman (16) atop the Windsor scoring parade were Kobie Williams (18) and former Five guard Jason Calliste (11).
On the flip side, Jaylen Bland remained a workhorse for the locals, playing a team high 37 minutes and netting 24 points to lead all scorers on the evening. Going to the foul line more than anyone else on the court, Dexter Williams Jr came off the bench to chip in with another 15, with A.J. Mosby (15), Jeremy Harris (14) and J.D. Miller (13) all bunched closely together.
“The biggest takeaway is that I have to prepare these guys a little bit better,” said Stutz, never one to shy away from looking in the mirror after a loss. “I have to have them coming ready to play too. It’s a collective team effort. We have to make sure when the ball is in play that we are ready to play too.”
Not surprisingly, the Express held the upper hand in most of the key statistical categories, outshooting Sudbury from the field in general (56.5% vs 39.1%) and from beyond the arc (40.0% vs 25.6%) as well as out-rebounding the Five 52-43. Sudbury were more efficient from the charity stripe (23/33 = 69.7%), though neither team was particularly good from the line (Windsor – 14/22 = 63.6%).
Winners of four of their first five games, the Five now have a full week of practice time before facing the London Lightning for back to back games on the road next weekend, after squeezing out an 86-83 win last Thursday in their only meeting to date.
Heading into just the second month of game action with a regular season schedule that doesn’t conclude until May 2nd, Stutz is not about to rush the process. “It’s still early and they still have to have more time to play with each other, in scrimmages and a lot of up and down,” said the coach.
“We’ve got to work on spacing too, but I’m just really looking for a response, for us to respond in the right way.”
After netting 122 points or better in their first three outings of the new campaign, the Five have averaged just 93.5 in their last two. “We’re still figuring it out,” said Stutz. “We’ve got some good offensive weapons, but we’ve kind of failed the past two games to really produce offensively.”
“We have to get healthy, we have to get back to the drawing board and we have to figure it out for the next game.”
Thankfully, it will not be an Opening Night encounter.
